


Respawn

by SwoodMaxProductions



Category: Dead Cells (Video Game), Hollow Knight (Video Games)
Genre: Canon Non-Binary Character, Canon Temporary Character Death, Caretaking, Carrying, Crossover, Empathy, Exhaustion, Fainting, Fluff, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Friendship, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Injury, Muteness, Parental Instinct, Temporary Character Death, Video Game Mechanics, Void frens!, hold the Knight gentle like babie, it’s cute, the Beheaded with no body is also smol, the Knight is smol
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-17
Updated: 2020-09-17
Packaged: 2021-03-08 01:20:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 478
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26517358
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SwoodMaxProductions/pseuds/SwoodMaxProductions
Summary: The Knight empathizes with the Beheaded after all that time chasing their Shade. So when he “dies”, they pick the little blob of alchemical... stuff up and take care of him.Fluffy crossover friendship.
Relationships: The Beheaded aka the Prisoner & the Knight
Comments: 10
Kudos: 124





	Respawn

**Author's Note:**

> In anticipation of getting Dead Cells— DEAD CELLS FIC TIME!

Damage.

Contrary to what you might assume, having a possessed body torn to shreds hurt. It hurt like hell.

The Prisoner wriggled free from his undead flesh, his being aching intensely from the strain and essence loss. He lay in a pitiful little puddle, too tired to properly structure his amorphous body. He oozed into the shadows and let his eye fall shut. These last few runs had been hell, he thought. Maybe if he rested. Just a little bit…

~~~

It wasn’t just a little bit. The Prisoner had lapsed into unconsciousness, something he was only made aware of by the sensation of being scooped together like a runny and particularly lethargic blob of Play-Doh rousing him from his unintentional slumber.

He cracked open his eye to see two pools of inky darkness looking back at him out of a pale mask.

Ah. The baby.

He didn’t know, maybe they weren’t a baby. It wasn’t like he knew of anything he could really compare the little creature to. But they sure as hell  _ seemed _ like a baby. For starters, they were about the size of a table lamp. That was the obvious one. But they were also strangely innocent and curious, and though they never spoke a word, (though he didn’t really have room to… well… damn it) everything about their demeanor either screamed “powerful warrior” or “little kid”.

They squished him together in their tiny clawed hands, holding him with their tattered grey cloak underneath his amorphous form to carry him. It was strange. Not in a bad way, but just… something he wasn’t used to. He was so accustomed to dying and crawling back to the waterways or some other secluded place alone that he hadn’t really ever thought about the concept of someone wanting to…  _ help _ him.

The weirdest thing was, he knew the little bug person was well aware of his body-hopping. They’d seen it happen, so why were they so concerned? Why go through all this trouble?

~~~

The next time the Prisoner regained consciousness, the bug child was holding some kind of giant cockroach. They placed it on its back so it couldn’t scuttle away, and gently pushed it toward him. Neither of them needed to speak to understand.

_ Eat. Eat and recover. _

He shifted his mass to engulf the insect, and the child looked pleased. Well, as much as a featureless horned mask atop a blob of ragged grey fabric could look pleased, anyway. They reached out and patted him. ...Why did that feel so good…?

He slithered to the corpse of another unfortunate victim of the King, taking his favored place atop its shoulders. He wiggled his new fingers, found the body suitable, and picked up the child like a baby.

It was at this point the Prisoner didn’t care about why. The child cared. 

And that was enough for him.


End file.
